Intro
Contents
40 years after the original Creek 4040 amplifier, the 4040A has been released. The original amplifier caused a shockwave in the HiFi industry: excellent quality and very affordable, a combination unheard off at that time. Does this “Anniversary edition” repeat the succes?
The HiFi world is very different in 2024. There are many affordable and good-sounding amplifiers on the market. You have to bring quite a bit to stand out in a crowded market.
The Creek looks adorable, a square box that fits easily on or in a piece of furniture. The Creek turns out to be a small powerhouse in practice, leaving many serious-looking amps in the dust.
Connectivity of the Creek 4040A
The amplifier offers enough connectivity: TOSlink, Coaxial SPDIF, USB audio, 2 analogue line inputs, an XLR input and Bluetooth. One of the two analogue inputs can be replaced by a phono preamp. Our review copy is equipped with this preamp, suitable for MM elements. Without a phono preamp, the price is 100 euros lower. A headphone jack is present on the front.
The Line 1 input can be set to bypass the preamplifier function, allowing a DAC with preamp or an external preamplifier to be connected and the Creek to work as a power amplifier. There is also an EQ function that can be switched on to adjust the treble and bass if desired.
The influence of a power cable
Despite the manual stating that using a different power cable will make no difference, due to the switch mode power supply in the amp, a difference can be heard though when comparing the supplied power cable and an Essential Audio Tools cable. The Essential Audio Tools cable projects the soundstage slightly larger and with more fine edged detail. The supplied cable smooths the sound over a bit, which is not unpleasant and well balanced. Bottomline, the price difference for an after market power cable does not outweigh the small gain.
